Week of February 22, 2016

1. As you may know, our class will be taking a trip this Thursday, February 25th to the Brooklyn Music School Playhouse to watch a show on the history of toys. Please send in your child’s permission slip and trip fee ($10) no later than Wednesday, February 24th, if you have not yet done so.

2. Our 100th Day of School is this Friday, February 26th. If you have not yet done so, please be sure to send in your 100th Day of School hat, as students will wear their hats for different activities throughout the day on Friday.

3. This is a gentle reminder to please kindly ensure all homework is completed using a regular pencil. In an effort to help prepare our students for first grade and instill good work habits at an early age, markers, colored pencils, and pens should be avoided if at all possible when doing homework, and crayons should be used for coloring pictures only. As always, your support is so very much appreciated.

4. There are still a few slots available for anyone wishing to sign up to be a Star Reader or lead an art/craft activity in our class. Anyone interested in signing up may do so via the Google Docs link provided by our class mommies. If this link is not available to you, you may also e-mail me directly. We look forward to seeing you in our class! 🙂 THIS WEEK IN K-103. . .

Reading:

*Please note: This will be our final week working with this text, as we conclude our Biography unit.*

Abraham Lincoln: A Great President, a Great Man. Nonfiction text. Skills to be covered in this unit are: understanding elements of biographical texts, understanding author’s purpose of biographies, identifying and utilizing nonfiction text features to extract and expand information, identifying main idea vs. details, classifying and sorting information, using context clues, using illustrations to make and revise predictions, making and comparing text-to-self connections, and identifying physical and emotional character traits.
Sight Words: again, beginning, middle, end, sequence, biography, question, interview Phonics/Phonemic Awareness: suffixes and prefixes (-ful, -less)

Writing:
This week, students will conclude their study of Unit 3: Biographies. They will engage in peer and self reflections as they analyze their published writing pieces. Students will also have an opportunity to share their work with the class during our end-of-unit Publishing Party.

Math:
This week, students will continue working with the first grade Math curriculum, as they begin exploring Chapter 3: Addition Facts to 10. Topics to be included this week are: Utilizing various strategies to add, interpreting and representing sets, and counting on to complete addition sentences.

Science:
Unit 2: All About Energy
Focus: What are terrariums and aquariums, and how do they use energy systems?

SPECIAL DATES:

February 25 – Class trip to Brooklyn Music School Playhouse
February 26 – 100th Day of School
March 2 – Read Across America (details to follow)
March 3 – Parent-Teacher Conferences (details to follow)